Horace W. S. Cleveland was a pioneer landscape architect. His greatest achievement was designing a system of parks and parkways in Minneapolis. He advocated preserving spaces for parks in the rapidly growing cities of the American West. Cleveland was especially influential in preserving the banks of the Mississippi River gorge in St. Paul and Minneapolis as parkland.
President Lyndon B. Johnson visited the falls during a campaign stop, June 27, 1964. At left is Minnesota Governor Karl Rolvaag. Behind the president is Minnesota U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, whom Johnson would choose as his vice-presidential running mate later that summer.
The fifty-three-foot-high Minnehaha Falls was purchased by Minneapolis in 1889. It was the centerpiece of a new state park. The falls remain one of the state's most popular attractions for both residents and visitors. Their name is derived from the Dakota words mni for "water" and gaga for "falling" or "curling"—literally "water fall."